Parents, please encourage your children to become “science experts.” The perks are excellent – prestige, travel, publicity, conferences – your fifteen minutes of fame. And all you have to do is make bigger claims than the last expert.
Here are a few favorite gems :
March 10, 2006: It’s official: Solar minimum has arrived. Sunspots have all but vanished. Solar flares are nonexistent. The sun is utterly quiet.
This week researchers announced that a storm is coming–the most intense solar maximum in fifty years. The prediction comes from a team led by Mausumi Dikpati of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). “The next sunspot cycle will be 30% to 50% stronger than the previous one,” she says. If correct, the years ahead could produce a burst of solar activity second only to the historic Solar Max of 1958.
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2006/10mar_stormwarning.htm
Dec. 21, 2006: Evidence is mounting: the next solar cycle is going to be a big one.
see captionSolar cycle 24, due to peak in 2010 or 2011 “looks like its going to be one of the most intense cycles since record-keeping began almost 400 years ago,” says solar physicist David Hathaway of the Marshall Space Flight Center. He and colleague Robert Wilson presented this conclusion last week at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco.
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2006/21dec_cycle24.htm
OSLO, Feb. 29, 2008 (Xinhua) — The polar cap in the Arctic may well disappear this summer due to the global warming, Dr. Olav Orheim, head of the Norwegian International Polar Year Secretariat, said on Friday.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-03/01/content_7696460.htm
27-Aug-2007
Will oceans surge 59 centimetres this century – or 25 metres?
When Al Gore predicted that climate change could lead to a 20-foot rise in sea levels, critics called him alarmist. After all, the International Panel on Climate Change, which receives input from top scientists, estimates surges of only 18 to 59 centimetres in the next century. But a study led by James Hansen, the head of the climate science program at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York and a professor at Columbia University, suggests that current estimates for how high the seas could rise are way off the mark – and that in the next 100 years melting ice could sink cities in the United States to Bangladesh
Glaciers on Snowdon’ warning by climate expert
Jan 12 2010 by Rhodri Clark, Western Mail
THIS winter’s prolonged cold spell could be a taste of things to come for Wales – with glaciers a possibility within 40 years. That’s the chilly message from a leading Welsh climate expert who has warned that global warming could paradoxically trigger a collapse in temperatures in western Europe.
The Cooling World
Newsweek, April 28, 1975
Climatologists are pessimistic that political leaders will take any positive action to compensate for the climatic change, or even to allay its effects. They concede that some of the more spectacular solutions proposed, such as melting the Arctic ice cap by covering it with black soot or diverting arctic rivers, might create problems far greater than those they solve. But the scientists see few signs that government leaders anywhere are even prepared to take the simple measures of stockpiling food or of introducing the variables of climatic uncertainty into economic projections of future food supplies. The longer the planners delay, the more difficult will they find it to cope with climatic change once the results become grim reality.
http://www.denisdutton.com/cooling_world.htm
Proof of life on Mars by year-end, says NASA expert
Washington, Jan 16, 2010 (PTI) Is there life on Mars? The most intriguing question for everyone on the Earth would be answered by American space scientists by the end of this year, a NASA expert has claimed.
According to David McKay, chief of astrobiology at NASA’s Johnson Space Centre in Houston, the fact that Mars has bred life will be confirmed this year and the historic discovery will not be made on the Mars, but here on Earth using the chunks of the red planet.
http://www.ptinews.com/news/471015_Proof-of-life-on-Mars-by-year-end–says-NASA-expert
4 January 2007
2007 – forecast to be the warmest year yet
2007 is likely to be the warmest year on record globally, beating the current record set in 1998, say climate-change experts at the Met Office. http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/corporate/pressoffice/2007/pr20070104.html
Hot summer on the way, predicts Met
Sunday 8 April 2007
Britain set to enjoy another sizzling summer after new evidence from the Met Office suggested above average temperatures for the season. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/apr/08/weather.theobserver
Climate could warm to record levels in 2010
10 December 2009
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/corporate/pressoffice/2009/pr20091210b.html
From The Sunday Times January 10, 2010
“This will be the warmest winter in living memory, the data has already been recorded. For your information, we take the highest 15 readings between November and March and then produce an average. As November was a very seasonally warm month, then all the data will come from those readings.”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/dominic_lawson/article6982310.ece
Jan, 2008
Under my plan of a cap and trade system electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket, even, you know, regardless of what I say about whether coal is good or bad, because I’m capping greenhouse gases, coal powered plants, you know, natural gas, you name it, whatever the plants were, whatever the industry was, they would have to retrofit their operations. That will cost money. They will pass that money on to consumers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydqg7ThZB04
November, 2009 GORE: It definitely is, and it’s a relatively new one. People think about geothermal energy – when they think about it at all – in terms of the hot water bubbling up in some places, but two kilometers or so down in most places there are these incredibly hot rocks, ’cause the interior of the earth is extremely hot, several million degrees, and the crust of the earth is hot …
Snowfalls are now just a thing of the past Monday, 20 March 2000 According to Dr David Viner, a senior research scientist at the climatic research unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia,within a few years winter snowfall will become “a very rare and exciting event”. “Children just aren’t going to know what snow is,” he said. http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/snowfalls-are-now-just-a-thing-of-the-past-724017.html
1998 Was Warmest Year Of Millenium, Climate Researchers Report ScienceDaily (Mar. 4, 1999) — WASHINGTON, D.C. — Researchers at the Universities of Massachusetts and Arizona who study global warming have released a report strongly suggesting that the 1990s were the warmest decade of the millennium, with 1998 the warmest year so far. Researchers have also found that the warming in the 20th century counters a 1,000-year-long cooling trend. The study, by Michael Mann and Raymond Bradley of the University of Massachusetts and Malcolm Hughes of the University of Arizona, appears in the March 15 issue of Geophysical Research Letters, published by the American Geophysical Union. The research was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1999/03/990304052546.htm
December 14, 2008 “The time for delay is over; the time for denial is over,” Obama said on Tuesday after meeting with former Vice President Al Gore, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for his work on global warming. “We all believe what the scientists have been telling us for years now that this is a matter of urgency and national security and it has to be dealt with in a serious way.” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/14/obamas-global-warming-cha_n_150947.html
March 24, 2006 London ‘under water by 2100’ as Antarctica crumbles into the sea http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article694819.ece
February 20th, 1969
NYT: Expert Says Arctic Ocean Will Soon Be an Open Sea http://wattsupwiththat.com/2008/07/24/nyt-expert-says-arctic-ocean-will-soon-be-an-open-sea/
Arctic Ice Cap to Become an Open Sea in 10 years Oct 14, 2009 http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/280517
What are some of the reader’s favorites?
h/t to Steve Goddard
“There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.” — Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp. (DEC), maker of big business mainframe computers, arguing against the PC in 1977.
“A rocket will never be able to leave the Earth’s atmosphere.” — New York Times, 1936.
“Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.” — Lord Kelvin, British mathematician and physicist, president of the British Royal Society, 1895.
“Nuclear-powered vacuum cleaners will probably be a reality in 10 years.” -– Alex Lewyt, president of vacuum cleaner company Lewyt Corp., in the New York Times in 1955.
“The energy produced by the breaking down of the atom is a very poor kind of thing. Anyone who expects a source of power from the transformation of these atoms is talking moonshine.” — Ernest Rutherford, shortly after splitting the atom for the first time.
“The Americans have need of the telephone, but we do not. We have plenty of messenger boys.” — Sir William Preece, Chief Engineer, British Post Office, 1878.
“Rail travel at high speed is not possible because passengers, unable to breathe, would die of asphyxia.” — Dr Dionysys Larder (1793-1859), professor of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy, University College London.
All from http://listverse.com/2007/10/28/top-30-failed-technology-predictions/
So nothing new let’s move on.
@katie and Geezer: wiki lists some threats to the great barrier reef:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_threats_to_the_Great_Barrier_Reef
My favourite site for climate scare stories.
http://www.numberwatch.co.uk/warmlist.htm
I like the picture, just tell me the MPs were there when it happens?
My favourite is this one about melting mammoth dung accelerating global warming:
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL1076886120070917
Did anyone look at the comments on the daily article? People actually buy into it. It’s scary how so many people simply will not think for themselves.
From tallbloke’s link:
“Psychosocial illnesses are a part of the various health issues associated with climate change,” Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Deputy Regional Director, WHO, said.
True. It was so cold here last week I tried to kick the dog. (he escaped)
you forgot:
640 Kbytes ought to be enough for anyone – Bill Gates
and
the world market for computers is about 10 – forgot his name but he was president of IBM at the time
As a serious aside, this is very reminiscent of the shuttle disaster. The engineers who designed the boosters were of the opinion that a low temperature launch would end in disaster. But NASA wanted to launch that day so badly that they decided that since the engineers couldn’t prove that there was a problem, it was OK for them to “decide” that there wasn’t. In brief, the people at the top heard what they wanted to hear and dismissed anything they didn’t. Its in a lot of engineering curriculums now, here is an excerpt I swiped off the Texas A&M site. Very tragic and somehow reminiscent of recent events:
The Night Before the Launch
Temperatures for the next launch date were predicted to be in the low 20°s. This prompted Alan McDonald to ask his engineers at Thiokol to prepare a presentation on the effects of cold temperature on booster performance. A teleconference was scheduled the evening before the re-scheduled launch in order to discuss the low temperature performance of the boosters. This teleconference was held between engineers and management from Kennedy Space Center, Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama, and Morton-Thiokol in Utah. Boisjoly and another engineer, Arnie Thompson, knew this would be another opportunity to express their concerns about the boosters, but they had only a short time to prepare their data for the presentation. Thiokol’s engineers gave an hour-long presentation, presenting a convincing argument that the cold weather would exaggerate the problems of joint rotation and delayed O-ring seating. The lowest temperature experienced by the O-rings in any previous mission was 53°F, the January 24, 1985 flight. With a predicted ambient temperature of 26°F at launch, the O-rings were estimated to be at 29°F. After the technical presentation, Thiokol’s Engineering Vice President Bob Lund presented the conclusions and recommendations. His main conclusion was that 53°F was the only low temperature data Thiokol had for the effects of cold on the operational boosters. The boosters had experienced O-ring erosion at this temperature. Since his engineers had no low temperature data below 53°F, they could not prove that it was unsafe to launch at lower temperatures. He read his recommendations and commented that the predicted temperatures for the morning’s launch was outside the data base and NASA should delay the launch, so the ambient temperature could rise until the O-ring temperature was at least 53°F. This confused NASA managers because the booster design specifications called for booster operation as low as 31°F. (It later came out in the investigation that Thiokol understood that the 31°F limit temperature was for storage of the booster, and that the launch temperature limit was 40°F. Because of this, dynamic tests of the boosters had never been performed below 40°F.) Marshall’s Solid Rocket Booster Project Manager, Larry Mulloy, commented that the data was inconclusive and challenged the engineers’ logic. A heated debate went on for several minutes before Mulloy bypassed Lund and asked Joe Kilminster for his opinion. Kilminster was in management, although he had an extensive engineering background. By bypassing the engineers, Mulloy was calling for a middle-management decision, but Kilminster stood by his engineers. Several other managers at Marshall expressed their doubts about the recommendations, and finally Kilminster asked for a meeting off of the net, so Thiokol could review its data. Boisjoly and Thompson tried to convince their senior managers to stay with their original decision not to launch. A senior executive at Thiokol, Jerald Mason, commented that a management decision was required. The managers seemed to believe the O-rings could be eroded up to one third of their diameter and still seat properly, regardless of the temperature. The data presented to them showed no correlation between temperature and the blow-by gasses which eroded the O-rings in previous missions. According to testimony by Kilminster and Boisjoly, Mason finally turned to Bob Lund and said, “Take off your engineering hat and put on your management hat.” Joe Kilminster wrote out the new recommendation and went back on line with the teleconference. The new recommendation stated that the cold was still a safety concern, but their people had found that the original data was indeed inconclusive and their “engineering assessment” was that launch was recommended, even though the engineers had no part in writing the new recommendation and refused to sign it. Alan McDonald, who was present with NASA management in Florida, was surprised to see the recommendation to launch and appealed to NASA management not to launch. NASA managers decided to approve the boosters for launch despite the fact that the predicted launch temperature was outside of their operational specifications.
Come on people (with a satirical twist). It’s hard for these ‘experts’ to deceive the whole world. We must give them some kind of never-ending fame they deserve for all of their hard work.
They must dream, every night, of the best nightmares, spend years sorting for the scariest and most frightening scenarios. Isolate the most sellable to the gullible. Just any old nightmare will not do! They must find the ones with real world class reality. Even the best movie directors (sorry Steven) can’t reach this level of true realism.
They must give talks before congresses and assemblies across this globe to open channels to funds and grants to buy their tour buses and private jets. And all of that fuel! It doesn’t come cheap. Tax dollars are best reserved for this.
They must fly the world over to find the perfect cases to support their claims. Films and photographs. Charts and slides. Think of all that hard work!
The work is endless. Scheduling, back-door deals, writing books, writing papers, handling all of that data so imperceptibly fudged. Deception at this level is so hard that only the best, the most powerful of this world, can master this trade. Give them their due credit for goodness sake! These are masterpieces!
What’s needed is something along the line of a permanent ‘Watt’s Not!’ page to glorify their achievements for our children and our children’s children to know and keep. These great achievements by these ‘experts’ should never, ever, be forgotten! Come on, admit it. They deserve this well earned credit! And as their nightmares prove false, one by one, they can be entered into this truly deserved ‘World Climate Science Hall of Fame’! They’re lining up as we speak.
(Contestants must use word stating claims as fact. Entries using such words as may, maybe, possibly, it may come to pass, if, however to lighten their claims will be disqualified. All entries must be either “peer reviewed” or “scientifically referenced” by other ‘experts’ to be eligible.)
Wish this was but a dream.
Re the Barrier Reef : the amount of scare stories about it is unbelievable. Most people think of ‘the reef’ as the couple of places out from Cairns that you visit on a boat. They forget it stretches over a thousand km and is unimaginably large. If you ever fly over it in a plane, you start to realize that a bunch of starfish, C02 or just about anything else is not going to destroy it. When the coral spawns once a year, it creates a murky stretch of water that goes for thousands of kilometres. The reef is dead, long live the reef.
On becoming a scientist, here’s my prediction : climate change will affect the molecular structure of steel, with increased warming our buildings will stretch beyond their original dimensions, windows will pop out and in some cases, the building will crumple and fall. Please send research monies to….
Final note : that Thames flooding picture is an excellent piece of work. Is it CGI from a disaster movie, or did someone photoshop that up. The reflections of the buildings in the flood water, the ‘wake’ left by the buildings, truly magnificent work.
Someone should try to post this very entertaining stream of comments to RealClimate
George E. Smith (10:56:40) :
This is George E. Smith; popular Non Nobel Physics Prize Nonwinner reporting the Science Daily News for Jan 19 2010; with less than three years remaining till the end of time.
****************************
Are you insane man?? You just gave up a perfectly plausible prediction for the end of the known universe, and from all accounts did not ask for nor receive a govt grant to do so. You are harming all the feeding trough climate warmists at a pace no less than what humanity is doing to the polar bear! Repent sinner, and sin no more!!
LOL
…and in a cruel twist of irony:
Al Gore invents Internet
Al Gore invents Theory of Global Warming
Internet used to destroy Theory of Global Warming
Be carefull what you invent, it may come back at you in unexpected ways….
Jeremy (10:44:00) wrote:
“If you wanted an article that was exhibit A as to the Green movement being a religion …”
Speaking of the Green movement and religion … Today, Canada’s National Post (of all papers!) has the following as a front-page story:
“Brought to the brink by climate change
“Mardi Tindal, the newly elected moderator of the United Church of Canada, returned from last month’s climate change summit in Copenhagen with a deep malaise. Not a true clinical depression, but an anxious despair that reduced her to weeping.
[…]
” At services this Sunday at more than 200 United churches across Canada, a letter by Ms. Tindal was read to her congregations, describing how she was “heartbroken because it was clear to me, as it was to many of you, that the talks in Copenhagen needed to succeed, that it is no longer safe for us to go on as we have before,” and urging them to do “whatever you can imagine” to reduce carbon emissions.
And in the same article:
“Climate change could have “significant negative effects on global mental health,” according to a new scientific report in the journal Psychological Medicine. It predicts that many of these negative effects will be felt not by those who are already mentally ill (although they will likely bear the brunt), but also by otherwise healthy people, such as Ms. Tindal, who will suffer “psychological distress, anxiety and traumatic stress.”
“The author, U.K. psychiatrist Lisa Page, cites “altered patterns of infectious disease, injuries from severe weather events, food and water scarcity, and population displacement” as mechanisms by which global warming could cause “an increase in the overall burden of mental disorder worldwide.”
“Dr. Page cites “preliminary evidence” of more extreme possibilities: […]”
http://digital.nationalpost.com/epaper/showarticle.aspx?article=2e661490-b9e3-4ed0-bb10-
“”” tucker (16:35:36) :
George E. Smith (10:56:40) :
This is George E. Smith; popular Non Nobel Physics Prize Nonwinner reporting the Science Daily News for Jan 19 2010; with less than three years remaining till the end of time.
****************************
Are you insane man?? You just gave up a perfectly plausible prediction for the end of the known universe, and from all accounts did not ask for nor receive a govt grant to do so. You are harming all the feeding trough climate warmists at a pace no less than what humanity is doing to the polar bear! Repent sinner, and sin no more!!
LOL “””
Hey man; qwit buggin me; I got less than three years to climb to the top of the mountain to watch the sun crash into the sea, and end it all. And at my age, in my decrepid state, I’m gonna need most of that three years to get there.
OT, but in defense of my favourite newspaper, it did redeem itself with the following:
Peter Foster: IPCC meltdown
“Now the question is whether Rajendra Pachauri should resign
“The Himalayan glaciers will still be around in 2035, contrary to oft-repeated alarmist claims by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Whether the IPCC’s head, Rajendra Pachauri, whose credibility is melting faster than the proverbial snowball in Hades, will make it to his next paycheque is another matter.
“With Climategate still simmering and the collapse of Copenhagen reverberating, a fresh storm has blown up over the discovery that the IPCC’s claim that Himalayan glaciers were about to disappear is entirely bogus.
[…]”
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fpcomment/archive/2010/01/19/peter-foster-ipcc-meltdown.aspx
This is George E. Smith; popular Non Nobel Physics Prize Nonwinner reporting the Science Daily News for Jan 19 2010; with less than three years remaining till the end of time
Didn’t believe you but put in a call to the Restaurant at the End of the Universe and they confirmed no bookings beyond that date. Or is that how you found out in the first place?
I think the Mayan calandar runs out in 2012, have seen several dates during that year (last was Dec 21). Two years, 11 months. Better get a move on, George.
As the World’s Greatest Expert on Everything (including Science) I predict that many of us will be dead in fifty years. And darn near all in a hundred.
davidmhoffer (12:09:51) :
“…Seriously though, I graphed the accumulated national deficit against the IPCC world temperatures and the correlation is excellent. National debt caused global warming. Am I a scientist now?”
REPLY:
No, No, you have it backwards, Global Warming causes the National Debt to increase just ask Obama. Aren’t we now on the steep upward rise part of the graph of Gore’s Hockey stick? Soon we will need a step ladder….
Anyone in the UK remember a BBC program from the 1970s presented by Raymond Baxter – the topic was whether the recent global cooling meant we were on the precipice of a new ice age, and various experts were interviewed to give their opinions.
I tried to find a reference to it on the web but no luck so far. It would be interesting to know what was said!
George E. Smith (16:47:51) :
“”” tucker (16:35:36) :
George E. Smith (10:56:40) :
This is George E. Smith; popular Non Nobel Physics Prize Nonwinner reporting the Science Daily News for Jan 19 2010; with less than three years remaining till the end of time.
****************************
…Hey man; qwit buggin me; I got less than three years to climb to the top of the mountain to watch the sun crash into the sea, and end it all. And at my age, in my decrepid state, I’m gonna need most of that three years to get there.
REPLY
Hey George, I have a nice pony and a cart and harness, want to borrow it? sure beats walking and goes places ATVs can’t.
George E. Smith (16:47:51) :
“”” tucker (16:35:36) :
George E. Smith (10:56:40) :
Hey man; qwit buggin me; I got less than three years to climb to the top of the mountain to watch the sun crash into the sea, and end it all. And at my age, in my decrepid state, I’m gonna need most of that three years to get there.
George, for suitable financial recompense (hey, you can’t take it with you at the end of the world), I’ll climb the mountain with a video camera and send a live feed to your PC. Deal?
Considering the MSM covers alarmist procastinations with zeal, and seem to get a fair bit of their “news” from the internet, and warmist politicians jump on the “news” immediately, why wouldn’t we “plant” alarming predictions of our own? The affects could be..
1-) Loss of credibility for MSM, warmist politicians and future alarmist views.
2-)MSM may be forced to better “fact check” future alarmist predictions (ditto politicians)
3-) Hence putting the brakes on future alarmist predictions.
We could render the “tool of alarmism” useless.
Any thoughts?
How does the saying go? If your cause becomes the butt of satire and ridicule, the end of your cause is near. I hear the feet of doom approaching AGW as I type.
I am strangely in admiration that the average public that does not frequent blogs like this one intuitively know that AGW is a fraud, and are voting thumbs down on it to the great consternation of govts worldwide.